


Maybe, Definitely

by lilolilyrae



Category: Lie to Me (TV)
Genre: Callian - Freeform, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:13:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25146010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilolilyrae/pseuds/lilolilyrae
Summary: Gil has been on edge ever since she finally broke up with Alec. No, if she's being honest she knows it's been longer than that.A bad case brings her to the breaking point. Luckily, Cal is there to pick up the pieces.
Relationships: Gillian Foster/Cal Lightman
Comments: 4
Kudos: 80





	Maybe, Definitely

**Author's Note:**

> This was not this kitschy when I started writing it.

It has been a while since they caught a case as hard as this one. And once they solve it, it doesn't even feel like a win- too much hurt, too much pain, too many victims and innocent bystanders caught up in it.

It's stupid, really. It's just work for them. It shouldn't be _her_ that's hurt. But with how brittle she has felt for weeks, months now, it's what brings her to the breaking point.

And she doesn't have Alec anymore... No matter what a shitty husband he had been, he had been someone to hold her close after a bad day, give her the human contact she craves.

Cal must have noticed her despair, as he asks her, actually asks her, whether there is anything he can do.

"No, I..."

It's half hearted at best, and she knows it. He must hear the lie. She doesn't even try to finish the sentence. 

Cal tilts his head, but he doesn't say anything. She knows why. Because she had asked it of him- to ignore anything she doesn't outright say. But this time she's not sure she's ready to say it, and she really, really needs-

"Ignore the line." 

Barely more than a whisper, but she knows he heard.

Cal's mouth falls open, and for a moment the only thing they can hear is their breath. 

"What's wrong, what can I do? Because you clearly didn't say the truth just now." he presses out. And, after another moment: "Gil?"

She wants to stumble forward into his arms. But she's painfully aware of the glass front of the office, and if she's breaking the line between the two of them, she needs to be professional towards everyone else.

"Can we not do this here?" 

"Do you- do you want to come home with me? Uh, I don't mean like-"

"What if I would mean it that way?" It's said tonelessly, afraid of his reaction. 

"Gil?" His eyes widen, then his hand strokes- gently- over her face. "Come on."

* * *

Inside, they don't know what to do for a moment.

Cal offers to get them a drink, but Gillian shakes her head. If they're doing it, they're doing it sober. No chance of blaming future regrets on anything but themselves.

Cal is leaning in the kitchen doorway, watching her.

She shifts from one leg to the other. She made the first move when she told him to ignore the line. It's his turn now.

Almost as if he reads her thoughts, he's in her space, crowding her but never touching, always giving her a way to escape. Alec would have his arms on either side of her now. She always hated that.

Now, she doesn't want to escape.

Taking the final step forward, she collapses into his embrace, and he holds her in his arms.

Her nails claw at his shirt, trying to get impossibly closer. His hands stroke through her hair, over her hip.

For a few moments, they are just standing there, still tense, before she lets herself go and starts crying into his chest.

He keeps petting her hair, mumbling sweet nonsense into her ear she wouldn't have thought him capable of.

After several minutes, her sobs die down and she snuggles more comfortably into his embrace.

"Want to talk about it?" Cal asks.

Gillian shrugs. She wouldn't even know what to say. It's not one situation that drove her to cry like this, but many little things. 

She has been on edge ever since she finally broke up with Alec. No, if she's being honest she knows it's been longer than that. Their last case just brought her to the breaking point. 

"Not much to talk about."

Cal accepts the half truth and presses a kiss to her hair.

Tilting up her face, she catches his attention, and then he catches her lips in a proper kiss.

It isn't like fireworks. It's better. It feels like coming home.

She doesn't know how long they have been standing there- hugging, kissing, just holding each other, barely talking.

When she hears Cal yawn, she has to laugh. 

"It's been a long day" she mumbles into his neck.

"Let's go to bed?" it's more than one question. Gil nods to all of them.

With another kiss that turns into a snog against the doorframe and another on the landing that makes Gillian consider whether they might not be too tired for other activities they could do in bed...

* * *

Emily is laughing as she gets into the taxi and texts her mother that she's on the way home. "Hey, do you have my bag?"

"Here" Max holds it up. "Who're you texting? Sam'n'Amy?"

"Naw, just mom. If we'd tell these two where we were now they'd just get suspicious." she grins.

"Probably!" he laughs. "Do you really think it's okay that I'm staying over? Your dad's home, right?" 

Emily rolls her eyes. "Dude, you're literally gay." 

"Which your dad doesn't know. And we won't tell him, because parents gossip."

"He wouldn't. But anyways, you can have the guest room, my dad won't complain. Which he shouldn't anyways, he still lets girls sleep over in my room-"

"Well, he doesn't know you _like_ girls. It's not like you actually told anyone, you just keep hinting at it." 

"He should know! He's a living lie detector!"

"He probably noticed you like guys and didn't think about the fact that bi people exist. Them straights be like that."

"Pan. And yeah I guess. Probably best not to tell him, or he'd be suspicious of all of my friends instead of being reasonable towards guys... Oh, we're here! Can you let us out at the corner? Thanks!"

Emily unlocks the front door, ready to call out to her dad that she's home, when she freezes instead and holds up a hand to shush Max, too. Was that a _moan_?! And definitely a female voice... Did dad forget that she was going to stay at his place tonight?! That's so not like him!

Then there's no mistaking it anymore: _"Let's go to bed"_ she hears her dad say, and the sound of snogging continues before someone audibly bumps into furniture. 

Emily pushes Max back out the door and closes it as quickly as possible. 

As soon as the door is closed Max bursts out laughing. "Gosh, Em, shoulda seen your face, oh gee, eyes like-" he pushes his eyes open comically wide with his thumbs and index fingers before collapsing into giggles.

"Shut up!" Emily groans. Then she kind of has to laugh, too. "Oh gosh, what are we going to do now? I _really_ don't want to hear my dad with some- some one night stand!"

"How do you know it's a one night stand? He could be seeing someone..."

"He'd tell me if it was something serious. And ugh, I don't even want to think about it. Parents and sex..."

"Hey, think positive... At least you know it's not your mum!"

Emily laughs. "Yeah, I guess there's that. Oh, I should text her that we're not going home yet after all, or she'll ask dad about it and it'll all come out... What do you want to do?"

"Hm... You didn't tell her we'd take a taxi, right? With the bus we would've gone past the cinema..."

"Oooh right! There's a new Marvel one I haven't seen yet..."

Max groans, defeated, but nods. Emily takes out her phone.

"Hi mom... We're at the cinema, they're playing Avengers, is it okay if we go? I know it's kinda late but they're only showing it this week..."

 _"Why wouldn't it be okay? Wait, why are you calling me and not your father, why_ wouldn't _Cal be okay with you going to the movies?"_

"Uh, I'm with a boooy, forgotten? "

Brief silence on the other end. _"Have fun. Tell me when you're home safe."_

Emily grins as she hangs up. Max raises an eyebrow. "What?"

"When dad wouldn't allow me to do something, mom will definitely _love_ to let me!"

* * *

  
Later. Cal snuggles into her, burrows into her breasts, then her tummy. 

"What are you- am I a teddy bear to you?" Gil chuckles, half asleep.

"Maybe..."

"You're never like this." Gil notes.

"I don't want people to see me vulnerable. But..." Cal sighs. "Look..." he trails of again.

Gil smiles. "You're bad at being more vulnerable than someone else."

"I'm sorry..."

She shakes her head. "It wasn't a complaint. At least you're very keen on keeping a balance..."

They settle in for the night, and Cal is almost asleep when he hears the front door open. Emily! Wait, it's almost midnight! Where has the kid been?!

"Keep sleeping, love" he whispers to Gil, presses a kiss to her forehead, and a calming hand on her shoulder before climbing out of bed and walking downstairs. 

"Still up so late?"

"Hi dad! We were at the movies, mom said that it's okay" 

"And this is..."

"Hi Mister Lightman, I'm Max, we go to the same school..."

"...hi." Cal stares Emily down. "Max is here at this hour because...?"

"We're having a sleepover!"

"U-huh."

"He's just a friend! Honestly dad, come on! And-" she adds triumphantly- "it's homophobic to be like that when I've got a boy over but not when it's a girl!"

"No, because when it's a girl even if she was your girlfriend you couldn't get pregnant- or endangered by the 'inherent misogyny of this society'. Yes, I listen to your rants, both you and your mother..." 

"Ugh."

"Well, now?"

"He'll stay in the guest bedroom, don't worry."

"Okay." her father nods in a sharp, almost awkward way- "...but, um, be quiet. I have a guest who's already asleep."

"A...guest?" so the woman from earlier is still there... Whoever she is. Emily narrows her eyes at him.

"Um, I could leave if this is a bad time?" Max says awkwardly. 

"I'm not gonna kick out a kid in the middle of the night." Cal grumbles.

"I'll leave first thing next morning, got it." Max giggles uncomfortably. 

Emily rolls her eyes.

" _Goodnight_ dad!"

Clearly dismissed, Cal leaves them to it and goes back upstairs.

"Hmm?" Gil asks, keeping her eyes closed. Cal presses a kiss to her hair, gets back under the covers and spoons up to her.

"Emily and a- friend." he mumbles.

"Oh?" Gil turns in his arms, a little more awake again.

Cal huffs and shakes his head.

"They're probably really just friends, I couldn't find signs for a lie. Plus, if that kid isn't gay as- what? I can see those things, too!"

Gillian just chuckles and shakes her head. "Not my secret to tell" she mumbles, knowing all too well that Cal will probably mentally go through all their mutual acquaintances looking for what he missed.

"Don't worry about Emily" she distracts him. "If she says there's nothing to worry about, there's nothing to worry about. She's a good girl."

"That she is" Cal mumbles. "But you know she's my blindspot."

"Not like that. You just like to worry. Go to sleep now, Cal"

"Yes, darling." Cal kisses her eyebrow, her nose, the corner of his mouth. 

"Sleep well, my love."

Gillian turns back around, her back to Cal's chest, ready to sleep.

They don't know that outside in the hallway, Emily stands frozen- she heard the last words.

 _Love_ \- so this isn't just a one night stand.

Emily knows only one woman her father casually calls that- Gillian. But they never- he would _tell_ her, wouldn't he? Well, maybe it's something new... It all depends on whether or not Gil will be around in the morning... 

* * *

Cal wakes up early the next day. He comes to on his stomach, one arm thrown over Gillian's warm body.

She looks even more beautiful than usual, fast soft in her sleep, lit in the dim morning light.

He gently wakes her up, presses a kiss to her chin.

"Hi" 

"Hey"

They kiss.

"It's still early, so if you want to leave... I mean, Emily's here."

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No."

"Then I'll stay."

Cal raises an eyebrow. "She'll know- that you stayed in my room, I mean. Her friend's in the guest room."

Gillian slowly nods. Cal already said that he wants her to stay, knowing that Emily would know... She smiles.

* * *

When Emily and Max come down the stairs, there are soft voices speaking in the kitchen. 

Emily pushed open the door.

"Hi- _Gillian_!"

Gil actually blushes a little and smiles at her. Cal busies himself getting breakfast food out of a cabinet.

"Uh, hi, I'll be going..." Max squeaks into the awkward silence, grabbing his bag off the counter.

"You don't need to-" Gillian starts.

"Oh, no, I really do have choir practice to get to- um, nice meeting you all..."

"Don't forget to tell Amy and Samantha all about how cool the park was and that they definitely need to go!" Emily reminds him, and they both snigger. 

Cal tilts his head at them. Emily explains:

"You know Sam, right? Amy's in Max' class. And they, Sam'n'Amy I mean, they're _so_ into each other but neither of them is going to make the first move, so... That's why we went to the theme park yesterday, just the two of us l instead of with them, so now they have to go together too!"

"So you've gone together to match-make your friends? And you two really are just friends?"

Emily rolls her eyes. " _Yes_ , dad!"

"Uh, bye?" Max asks, and Emily laughs and brings him to the door.

When she comes back into the kitchen, Gillian is standing at the counter alone, Cal nowhere in sight.

Emily goes and hugs Gillian, mumbling into her shirt: "I'm glad that it's you! But _please_ tell me this isn't just a one night stand but the start of an actual sane adult relationship?please"

"Um- we didn't really talk about it..." Gil looks at Cal who just turned up in the doorway.

"Ugh! You're supposed to be adults! Dad! I'm going to the bathroom and giving you ten minutes to figure this out!" and off she goes.

"Did- your daughter just give us her blessing?"

"Uuh..." Cal makes a hand movement as if about to point at something or someone before he realises that he has no idea what he is doing. 

"Yes? I meam- Not that it matters if you don't want to-  
Do you want to?"

"Well- we work together... And it's never a good idea to date-"

"I haven't been your patient in years, Gil."

"I was going to say colleagues."

"And why is that a problem? Sighs. Was never going to do anything when you were with Alec, and-"

"Wait," Gillian steps away from the safety of the counter, into the room and closed to Cal, "you- already, _then_?"

"You really didn't notice??"

A little annoyed, she answers: "Not everyone can read people the way you do, Cal."

He holds up his hands in surrender, stepping closers to her, too. "Not what I meant, I just always thought that I was really bad at hiding it."

"I- maybe you were, I don't know. I just wasn't able to see- I did _hope, y_ ou know, and felt _horrible_ for hoping when I was with another man..."

"Oh, love..." Cal mumbles, reaching out to her and stroking her cheek.

Gil closes the rest of the distance, and they meet in a kiss.

They didn't really talk about it all, not yet at least. But it doesn't seem to matter as much. They know what they want.

And when Emily interrupts their kiss by squealing in delight at the sight of it, they know that whatever it is they are doing, it is the right decision to try.

  
~ fini ~

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked it let me know! And if you want to read a smarty version of this also let me know, I might be tempted to write one xD


End file.
